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Nova:QuintessonAttack
2k5 - Wednesday, February 13, 2008, 6:26 PM ------------------------------------------- Binary Star System This was a binary star system is in the K'Tor cluster within the Rainbow Climbs. Ever since one of its stars went nova, everything left in the wake of the shockwave - gutted planetoids and other debris - has been teaming with energon. It's turned into a race to see who can take most advantage of the situation. Alien freighters, miners, traders, pirates, empire warships, scavengers, and others are all here. Thing Contents: Space-Going B-1R Lancer Red Spacecraft Quickswitch Guardian Starfighter Sixshot Trypticon Autobot City Jetfire's last pose: The Guardian Starfighter cruises on, his course preprogramed with randomizations, ensuring that he's not entirely predictable. Much of his attention is turned inwards as he processes the incoming data in real time, fairly drowning in -his- favorite thing, much as Quickswitch - in the guardian's case, information. Still, an amber light flashes in his empty cockpit as his sensors pick up an anomaly, forcing him to a more conscious state as he addresses the reading. Something's out there... he switches to the sensor that first pinpointed the change and hmms. His course no longer wandering, his engines throttle and he turns to head quite directly towards the distant anomaly - curiosity, if nothing else, getting the best of him. Quickswitch's last pose: The Autobot Sixchanger is enjoying the fruits of deep space labor. A pool of shimering energon (is it in liquid form?), relatively large, concealed within the crags of rock--a good solid drill bit to the rock as he transforms loosens it, and the energon begins pouring out. As rapidly back into robot mode to catch it, Quickswitch grins. It was raw energon, unrefined into fuel grade... The surges and strength might be considerable, but this asteroid was /theirs/ and wouldn't it be appropriate to test it? He lifts part of the rock up, lets the energon in its rawest state enter his mouth in great shimmering gushes, heading down his intake. He sighs, optics glowing brightly white, as he avails himself of even more of the plentiful energon. It would keep him going, of that, he was absolutely certain. The energon trickles down his mouth, over the rapidly, irratic flickering of his transparent blue plate, down his chest. He grins, widely. The surge through his systems was incredible, the static hard as it whallops him right in the central processing unit. He looks over at Springer, the other Wrecker present, "Do I look like tow-detail?" his vocorder is thick, separating slightly into its componant sounds in a slightly discordant rasp, "That's--" the nearest thing to a hiccup as Quickswitch transforms into a hovercraft and back again, "--that's why we have medics and drones... Just a minute," he scoops up more energon in a makeshift rocky 'scoop' and drinks deeply of the raw energon liquid. His optics sustain their flaring white glow, every circuit abuzz with energy and crackling at his joints. He flexes his internal hydraulics and does a quick run of his own random-irratic systems. As soon as Redshift starts to move, every sensor Jetfire has turned towards him sends up red flags. Yup, as he figured... it doesn't guarantee that a fight's about to break out, but it's better safe than sorry. His scramjets warm up now and suddenly the craft that had been moving sedately is moving like a dart... if Redshift -is- foolish enough to threaten the Autobot positions, the guardian will make a mess of him... assuming that he doesn't get help of course. There are plenty of marks for Redshift to choose. The only question is how risky he wants to be. For those not inclined to deal with dull mining work, there's freighters, mining ships, and scavenger vessels passing to and fro. Most of them have escorts, and others are well armed by themselves. Just how much does everyone's favorite Decepticon Shift want to bite off? Although one can't call this system quiet anymore, it does appear to be routine thievery and viciousness. Business as usual here. But then, in addition to the anomaly Jetfire is picking up on scanners, he, Redshift, Quickswitch, and any other number of space going Transformers and ships here begin to pick up marks on their radar throughout the region. Ships coming in from FTL - their arrival is imminent, and their number is in the hundreds. Cruising about in the glittery wake of the supernova's plerion, Fusillade is in the throes of performing weapons research for plasma sheathing. A yellow-green scroll of information ticks past on the interior of her canopy. However, all the intricacies of installation and maintenance, she pauses to take a break, and swings back toward the lurid red crab-shaped plumes that delineate the remaining pulsars in the center of gravity for the binary system. The unfolding cat and mouse game between Jetfire and Redshift eludes her for not, both the great distance, the Briar Patch of instrument-scrambling background radiation, and the alerts beginning to ping up on her sensors, like the first drops of rainfall from an impending deluge, and she sends out a general radio summons and alert on Decepticon broadband. Air Guardian Jetfire says, "I am reading several incoming signals, moving fast. All Autobots, be on your guard... this smells like an assault." Air Guardian Jetfire says, "Whirligig... see if Metroplex is ready, we might need him." Mother Goose Fusillade says, "Hmm, we're getting... several dozen incoming here in the K'Tor system. Anyone who's awake and here, get yer skidplates in gear. Someone's making their move -- and they're making it to win." Colonel Marissa says, "I'll ready our Starknight squadron for launch, Assistant Director." Soundwave has encrypted this channel. Commander Soundwave says, "Trypticon. Prepare for battle." Mother Goose Fusillade says, "Um... it's... more than several dozen now. Closer to... a hundred? Um... Maybe we should... yeah." Dreadwind sticks close to Trypticon after all he can't move around so well out in the cosmos, well at least not without his partner in crime. So he's stuck on guard duty, not that Trypticon really needs it but Dreadwind's sure that he's just been sent out to the middle of nowehere to be maimed, probably in a huge explosion given the amount of energy around here. Sixshot says, "Glad to see I haven't wasted a trip out here." Whirligig says, "Already ahead of you there, Jetfire. Energy readings are nominal." Dreadwind says, "Oh great, it's all going to be ignited in an explosion that's likely to tear a hole in time and space and i get to have a ringside seat, wonderful." Air Guardian Jetfire says, "Now would be a good time for Rodimus and Ultra Magnus to show up..." Redshift says, "will Energon burn in space?" Quickswitch responds, his vocorder sounding thick and unravelled, "Aaaah--hic--so that's what those were... Oh well," he calls dismissively, "What's the worry? We'll be fine." Air Guardian Jetfire says, "Thank you Colonel... the way these tracers are multiplying, we're going to need -everything- we have." Scrapper says, "No. It just kind of shatter/explodes like it does anywhere if it's shot at, though." While he lacks the fancy radar, LIDAR, and high-tech detection gear of some Transformers, Redshift still has enough sensors to know that the party-crashers are starting to arrive. The alert from Fusillade certainly adds a certain sense of urgency to the situation. He flickers a few lights annoyingly at the approaching Jetfire as if to say, 'I'll deal with you later', before changing his trajectory to propell himself towards Trypticon, in case the Decepticon position needs to be defended. Dreadwind says, "Oh it doesn't burn it combusts explosively, we're all going to be needing new arms, legs and chassis before this is over." Quickswitch says, "I recommend... try some of this before going in..." Dredge says, "It shatters and exploders..just like your body.." Dreadwind says, "Well the survivors will." Dredge sits in Trypticon's nose, slowly waking up from his stasis-nap. Air Guardian Jetfire says, "Quickswitch... I expect you in flight with weapons fully armed in 30 seconds, or I'll make -certain- that your life is a living hell." Commander Soundwave states a fun science fact for the day. "Energon does not chemically react with oxygen." Redshift says, "Any ideas who the party crashers are?" Dreadwind says, "I knew that, not that anyone ever asks me about anything anyway." Quickswitch looks at Springer, through readouts flashing across his optics, "...No." he responds definitely to the other Wrecker, "No," a shake of his head. The readouts are still there. Annoying blips. Why didn't they just go away? He lifts a large bucket of the shimmering liquid. Autobot City would not be missing this. The searing raw energy floods down his throat, splatters in fresh rivulets down his huge torso. His cpu quirks irratically and the surge throughout his systems increases. He never had it this good at the prison, never had it this good on old-Cybertron, "Aaaahhh....---" Quickswitch sighed, his vocorder thick and unravelled, as he finished off the entire bucketful and tossed it aside, where it rolled exaggeratedly in space. The static buildup was incredible. He could feel it throughout his systems, even hear and see it, but the *power surge*. Oh Primus--if the ground would stop randomly computing. Quickswitch leaped into the sky and transformed into the utilitarian form of a sub-orbital jet. There was no nod to aesthetics here, no need for it. The stars came into computational focus first, then the blips, all the while, static cracking around the 'seams' and engines of his jet form. Accelerated, Quickswitch transforms into a sub-orbital jet. Quickswitch says, "You couldn't do that, Jetfire, is it?" Indeed, Jetfire's picked up the signals, and the rapidly multiplying numbers are worrisome. His approach to the lesser starfighter is aborted as he burns towards the Autobot Mining teams... Metroplex can fight, but those miners will be stranded if they get cut off. He cycles his weapons, running through a combat check-down as the grim realities set in... those pings are far too numerous for this to be a 'mere assault'. This is going to be ugly, and bad things are going to happen, << Springer, ya'll are going to be in an ugly spot on that rock... I've got your back. >> Air Guardian Jetfire says, "You'd be surprised, I'm always looking for new test subjects." Soundwave is currently inside Trypticon's command center, watching passively as the new contacts jump in. He observes their readings closely, watching for any sign of an IFF signal, or a radio transmission from someone else in the system who might know who this is. So far, no luck. Quickswitch emits a staticky choke out of his saturated vocalizer, "Look somewhere else." Fireflight watches from one of Metroplex's better vantage points. This whole system is like nothing he's ever seen before, and the Aerialbot may have spent as much time watching it as some of the scientists, though for different reasons. As the comm lights up with alerts and coordinates, Fireflight pulls away from the scenic view as if it's a gravity field trying to pull him back toward it. "I should've known..." he comments to himself with a brief shake of his head as he jumps out away from Metroplex, transforming to get himself away so he won't be stuck inside if the city also has to transform. Fireflight falls forward, arms and then legs folding into his fuselage as the nose and tail sections fold down from his back into their positions onto the F-4 now standing on its landing gear, ready for takeoff. Dreadwind has no idea about the blips, swips or flips that may or may not be incoming, in fact as long as they aren't incoming and blasting at Trypticon then he's pretty much got nothing to do but sit and watch. Quickswitch sounds exhilirated, "This is gonna be great....!" Peacekeeper remains near Metroplex for now, studying the stars a bit as she waits for the frag to hit the fan, so to speak. She doesn't like being out here, but if she's needed for whatever's going on, then she'll help however she can. As the FTL signals become more precise as the brief moments before the arrival occur, the points fall into two categories: They are either stretched strategically across the solar system, covering the maximum amount of area for their number, or they are within 100 kilometres of an energon rich source - gutted planetoid, piece of debris, or asteroid. Rapidly, one by one in the span of ten seconds at the most, they emerge out into real space. Armed combat drones flash into existence across the system. A brief flash of light denotes each arrival. The drones are no bigger than a sedan, and are long, thin, and almost aquatic in nature. There are sharp teeth on one end, a pair of short ranged but powerful photon cannons on each side, and powerful thrusters at the rear. Their motions give the appearance of swimming through space. Numbering over a hundred, they instantly hold a presence throughout the system. One appears directly in front of Jetfire. Another pair, perhaps by luck, flash into existance behind Quickswitch and in front of Metroplex. Redshift, holding the luck of the robot devil with him, has one appear practically right in his sights. A trio appear on either side of Fusillade, momentarily disoriented. Both cityformers have numerous drones within their sights. The second group is less dangerous in the short term, but more dangerous in the long term: energon mining drones, shorter but fatter than the combat drones and with moderate cargo holds, they show a remarkable resemblance to Sharkticons. They appear over energon rich sources, and immediately dive towards them. The last group is merely a pair of ships that warp in towards the centre of the ex-solar system. They are large spiralesque spaceships bristling with weapons. On the bridge of the further Quintesson Command Ships, Exterminatius rests a tentacle on a railing, looking over the rest of the command centre. He watches the tactical display monitors with great interest, deeming it worthy to offer a mild chuckle. Redshift says, "time to rock and roll!" Dredge passes through the gates to enter Trypticon. Air Guardian Jetfire says, "Quintessons! Condition is Red... Metroplex... I hope you're with us." Dreadwind stares into space and quickly calculates the numbers of Spacesharkticons that have just appeared and groans, "Well it was turning out to be a bright and horrid day but now it's just become catastrophic. I just knew i shouldn't have listened and stayed where i was on Earth, not that it's any better there." As the numbers of ships coming out of faster-than-light increases, Fusillade barrel-rolls, igniting a few stray globules of energy that hadn't been snapped up just quite yet. <> she hisses into radio, before she more adamantly demands, <> She spins hard, sending the broad expanse of one of her wingroots to slam into the nearest floundering craft before they leap to life like their Terran barracuda counterparts. Dreadwind says, "Music isn't exactly the best thing at this time Redshift, unless it was in the form of a sonic weapon of some sort, but in a vacuum it wouldn't work properly anyway." Whirligig says, "There are /Quints/ out there?" In addition to being shiny, sleek ,and sexy, Redshift is also possessed of near-supernatural levels of luck. Just ask anyone he's shot lately. He catches one of the mysterious newcomers in his sights... Redshift first fires off a volley of laser fire to distract and disorient the target, before quickly transforming to his equally space-capable robot mode. Rifle in hand, he dives along the underside of the strange craft, and fires off a few shots at it's engines to disable the -thing-. <> Redshift emits. <> Fireflight says, "Looks like something of theirs, all right. You want me to bring you a few pieces?" Blip after blip solidifies itself, the system suddenly filling with way more hostile targets than Jetfire has ever needed to track at once. His immediate reaction is to drop his sensor sphere to a practical distance - deal with the ones close to him first and then expand his attention. His trigger finger is itchy, and the initial scans and readings are enough to convince him that danger is at hand. Two Laser turrets mounted on either side of his nose-cone sizzle to life, lancing out in search of slicing the one in front of him to ribbons even as he throttles to full, spiraling as he prioritizes the highest threats in his target database, calculating efficiency paths, << All Autobots, defend yourselves. We'll get you into better positions as soon as we are able! >> Hull temperatures indicated the freezing chill of space wrapping the entire length of the sleek starfighter within seconds of launch, taking a lazy circle about Trypticon's perimeter before climbing outwards to the source of the radio calls. Sixshot wouldn't be disappointed by the expedicious nature of the oncoming threat that had been brought to their attention, the immeadiate area filling with unidentified craft. He'd been through the space system on a bit of reconnaisance of sort, pegging through some of the debris with 'some' manner of caution, but any of the skirmishes had been of a lesser nature by the time he'd arrived. Now this, this would be far more interesting than sticking instruments into rocks or recording readings from some engineer's equipment. On the other side of the river so to speak, <> His engines primed themselves for combat speed, weapons charged and ready to go. Whirligig is actually pausing to consider this. No, really, she is. "If you would. I'd like to take a look. Well, when I can get a /chance/ to take a look anyway... Surprisingly Dreadwind motivates himself enough to moan in response of Fusillade's somewhat needy demands. <> Air Guardian Jetfire barks, "Focus on defeating them first Fireflight... we need every gun available. Use the gravity fields to your advantage, you should be able to navigate a large section of the debris field even without space capability." yes, he's forgotten who he's talking to. Peacekeeper blinks for a split second as a pair of combat drones flicker into existance a fair distance in front of her. Oh-ho. This is going to be quite interesting. <> she comments mildly as she brings her rifle out of subspace and opens fire on the closest drone, aiming for joints/optics especially. "What *are* those things?" There's no one nearby to answer Fireflight's question unless Metroplex himself chooses this moment to speak up, but he wonders out loud anyway even as he scans the weird toothy things that just popped in around the 'plex. <> he replies indignantly to the questions and commands over the comm while opening fire on the nearest one... whether it's the distraction of the comm channel or his unfamiliarity with maneuvering in this situation, his first few shots spray in several directions, none of them hitting the nearest drone. The sleek red spacecraft transforms into the winged warrior Redshift. So... It /wasn't/ just his sensors after all. The dark of space lights with so many targets winking into being, Quickswitch is nearly overloaded. A hiccup sizzles throughout his form. Facing one direction, the Sixchanger rolled, his wings turning completely by 180 degrees as he shifts into his larger robot mode, in deep space, hovering silently there for a nanosecond only before shifting back into his original form. Now facing Metroplex and, yes, those slithering space-craft that happened behind him. His overcharged processor reeled as he smiled ethereally. So much for the element of surprise. The beings come into focus from three disjointed trajectory headings--targets, fusing into a single image. The crackling lasers release searing rays of white in the darkness. Were it not for space, his barrels would smoke. Oh oh oh yes. Both types of drones - energon collectors and warriors - are initially confused and disoriented by their arrival. It takes them precious moments to get a bearing on the situation here, and what obstacles are in their way. Fusillade's wingtip tears through one drone while hardly leaving a mark on the space-bomber's wing. The explosion is quickly extinguished by the lack of oxygen in space. The remaining two quickly home in on her and begin chasing her. Similarly, the aquatic fish-like drone unlucky enough to appear in Redshift's line of fire twists and turns as it's fired upon, and proves an easy mark for the sharpshooting. Its engines on its rear section are blown off, and it wiggles around in space, snapping its teeth uselessly at him from afar. Redshift more than anyone has breathing room, but it won't last. Jetfire obliterates the drone with his laser turrets. On the further Quintesson Command Ship, Exterminatius has already marked him as the most dangerous individual here. It isn't just for his combat abilities. Trypticon and Metroplex are mighty, but they haven't the speed to catch him. Drones begin to home in on Jetfire and chase after him. Four fall in behind the Guardian, blazing away with photon blasters. Sixshot is immediately set upon by drones, but Trypticon's defensive fire serves to ward off the brief assault, giving the sixchanger a chance to do as he likes. The drones seem programmed to avoid the cityformers, and they begin to back off from them. Metroplex's guns meanwhile have shown themselves, and the city former begins clearing the space around him with flak cannons, covering for Marissa as the Starknight squadron launches. The spacebound exo-suits are flying in formation, taking up a defensive position around him. Peacekeeper, Quickswitch, and Fireflight get similar protection. Staying home is safe. The Quintessons don't mind if you stay home. They want you to stay home. Drones back away from Metroplex and his defenders, taking casualties even as they do. Elsewhere in the system, innocent and non-innocent spaceships come under attack. Freighters are set upon by the miner/scavenger drones. They latch on, tear through the hull, mindlessly uncaring of the crew within, and search for the energon holds. Other miner drones dive towards the asteroids and planetoids. Whirligig says, "Jetfire, any way you can give me some advanced warning if you plan on transforming Metroplex? I want to be ready this time." Redshift says, "Need one of these fish-heads intact, or do we scrap 'em all and pick up the pieces later?" Air Guardian Jetfire says, "Uh... I'm a little busy, seems the Quints don't much like me. We'll need him though... if you can prep him and get him moving, we'd all be better off!" Whirligig says, "Understood. I'll get a move on." Dreadwind draws his guns and waits, seeing as the drones have been apparently scared off by the defensive fire from Trypticon, he decides to radio his thoughts on the matter on an open frequency, "Well looks like the little fish have all been scared away from Trypticon, so i'll be waiting until they bring their huge exoploding suicide squid along or whatever other aquatic based creature they've thought up. Either way it'll be huge and cause large amounts of damage, it is unlikely that we will survive." Quickswitch nearly cackles, the sound mingling with muffled explosions. Oh good... at least the Quintesson's respect him. Jetfire's 'sphere of effect' is suddenly filling with targets as he lances several bolts of energy towards the closest pair of targets, burning right through explosions as he flies, << Looks like they made me a priority. >> he barks over general comms. These are the reasons the Guardian had his defensive systems upgraded. Two gattling turrets drop from the underside of the mammoth craft, spinning back to target the drones behind him and filling the empty space with hypervelocity projectiles, trying to shake the drones off with complex mathematically calculated maneuvers - even while taking several hits to his thick armor. Redshift takes a brief moment to indulge in some snide laughter and a smirk at the expense of the poor fish-like drone. Although there's precious little time to waste, so Redshift cuts short the entertainment, and plugs the hapless drone with a few well-placed slugs from his gauss rifle. His oprics scan around for his next target, and he reverts back to his spacecraft mode. Fewer weapons, but with speed and maneuverability that should give him an edge over the bizarre-looking drones. <> Redshift emits, while careening towards another of the toothy drones(and also closer towards the Quintesson command ships). He fires off more of his lasers, aiming more to disable than to destroy, and ready to return to his robot mode if/when he needs the extra firepower. Redshift transforms into his sleek spacecraft mode and takes to the air. Peacekeeper is glad that she's not attacked right off the bat, but she's not one to stay back and let others get put in danger while she stays 'safe'. Mindful of the radio chatter, she jumps down from Metroplex to the asteroid 'ground', running forwards to put at least a little distance between herself and the Cityformer. She surveys the 'skies', noting the various targets, and carefully begins to snipe--single shots and triple-fire bursts alike--at the drones that are targeting Jetfire as well as those that seem to get a bit too close for comfort. <> Fusillade reprimands Redshift sharply, but any other directives are short-lived as the two supple barracudas press the attack. Surely something a tenth of her length wasn't THAT bad? She doesn't seem too interested in taking chances, however, as she cuts forward thrust out completely, rolling over in a cobra head styled turn with smaller maneuvering thrusters, and then reignites her main space engines, barrlling toward the two offending fish, argon disruptor filling the immediate area with a hail of weaponsfire. Surprised to see a squad of human exosuits taking to the air around him, Fireflight emits a burst of static and rolls to one side. The exos stay out of his way easily, though, perhaps having been briefed about who they're flying with, and thanks to Metroplex's guns the main threat posed by the drones in this immediate area is as a debris hazard. "Hey, those suits have hands. Can any of you grab one of those big pieces and load it so I can bring it back when we're done out here?" Yeah, Fireflight heard Jetfire telling him to concentrate on deactivating the drones first. But stuck in Metroplex's gravity well, he can't fly out to help Jetfire, and Metroplex is managing these near drones pretty well, at least for the moment. The first small drone flies apart into two flailing pieces, and the second is quickly fixed upon and fired. Target destroyed. The others. They left the vicinity of Metroplex. Why? Their forms shrinking away from it. His lasers, crackling insistantly. /Target terminated. Guardian unit under fire. Systems status:--/ Quickswitch wanted to know where they were heading, fired up his thrusters in the muteness of space after those /cowardly/ brainless drones and their cowardly slinking masters, "That's it..." his readouts jump at random, "Take me to--hic--" /There/ they were. The earlier surge maintained, a flurry of lasers across space at whichever nearest drone was in reach. All of them. So many. For a moment, the exo-suits nearly counted as 'alien'--another hiccup. An elated transformation dragging his systems into further drift. Annoyance. He fires on the 'retreating' combat drone hordes. He ignored the warning messages his systems were sending, laughing them off as each of the metallic alien drones registered in his sights. Commander Soundwave says, "We cannot allow the Quintessons to pursue their objective, and yet, at the same time, we must safeguard our own claim in this sector. For the moment, I shall order Trypticon to remain here. We should, however, organize a sortie against the Quintessons." Redshift says, "That's what I was doing!" Redshift says, "We should try to board one of the command ship and um, mess up the control of the drones or something. Or crashinto the other ship!" Dreadwind says, "So i suppose my duties remain the same then, not that they ever change just the distance from everyone else that i'm kept at." Cyclonus says, "Soundwave, you may select the diposition, but I will lead it. As for you, Redshift, if you wish to crash into it yourself I will not stop you." Quickswitch says, "You Guardians, self-important, stuffy, all of you. *he sounds quite drunk (OOC:Which reminds me, he shouldn't be as dextrous right now perhaps!*" Sixshot says, "I'd be interested to hear more about this 'we' Redshift." Whirligig says, ".........should you even be /out/ there...?" Redshift says, "Well, it's a big fat ship, probaly has defenses for shooting down other big fat ships. A small squad should be able to break through the defenses and get in." Dreadwind says, "I told command that they shouldn't have sent Darkwing off on some other mission on the other side of the galaxy but no one listens." Sixshot says, "I'll volunteer for any mission involving direct interception of the Quintession craft, either providing distraction or part of the force itself." Omega Supreme says, "Is there a problem, Quickswitch?" Sixshot says, "These drones...are numerous and fun to explode, but it serves no gain to what we're trying to achieve." It's an honour, isn't it Jetfire? A painful honour. The drones aren't terribly smart at defending themselves, but they make expert hunters. A trio fall in line behind Jetfire, sending bright energy balls careening through space after him. One shatters as the rear turrets take it out. The drones are trying to box Jetfire in, leaving him with nowhere to go unless they want to smash right through them - it's a suicidal gambit on their part, but Jetfire would be damaged as well. Several slugs put Redshift's target out of its misery. With the Decepticon's tremendous speed, drones struggle to keep up with him, and their primitive code has them launch blasts in his direction. Most fall short of hitting the speedy Decepticon, though. On the second, further Command Ship, Exterminatius regards the monitors. He suddenly shifts, rotating around from its peace, diplomatic face to its termination face. He issues orders by tapping the controls with his tentacle. The first Command Ship readies its weapons for Redshift's arrival. The command ship is heavily shielded and carries a firepower greater than half the Decepticon star fleet. Its defenses are designed around a direct, large-scale assault. Small one-mech fighters should be able to penetrate the outer defenses. Hanging back, observing, and listening to radio chatter, Peacekeeper will get the general gist of the Quintesson plan even as she takes out another drone trying to keep Jetfire surrounded. The combat drones are keeping the defenders tied up while their mining units go for energon. Amazing that the Quints had this many energon siphoning droids for just this occasion. It is disturbingly well planned given the short notice. The two droids on Fusillade continue to streak towards her even as she streaks towards them. Disruptor fire destroys one, but the other is only nicked. It loses control of its thrusters... but is now on a direct course for Fusillade's cockpit thanks to momentum. Marissa, having dealt with Fireflight and other Aerialbots in the past, knows to stay out of his way when it can be avoided. She listens to his request and replies, "Colonel Faireborn here, Fireflight. We'll try to haul one of them in for inspection." A pair of Starknights are sent out on this task. The drones surrounding Metroplex stay at range, but pepper the odd photon blast at both him and those around him, including the Aerialbot. Quickswitch chases down the retreating drones, shooting them down one by one. They aren't much of a match for him while running away, and soon the Sixchanger begins to plow a small path through them. Where is the Autobot heading, anyhow? Quickswitch says, "'/I/ have been entrusted with this planet.' *in his best-sounding Guardian-voice imitation.* -hic- Hey! Good to hear you! How's the city?" Colonel Marissa says, "Quickswitch, are you quite alright?" Commander Soundwave says, "I shall pilot the Conquest. All Decepticons incapable of space travel should take stations within it. We will join with the space-capable Decepticons and commence with attacks on the Quintessons' equipment." Redshift says, "Sweet." Air Guardian Jetfire says, "Omega... long time, old friend. Don't mind the Six changer, he's drunk." Dreadwind says, "I suppose that means me, though i don't see what good it will do giving the Quintesson's a nice big target to aim at, probably just the thing those command carriers are hoping for." Omega Supreme says, "Understood. I had not known Quickswitch to be one to be overenergized, but it would explain the situation." Red Spacecraft was looking for trouble, but not on such a massive scale as /this/... Well, be careful of what you wish for, right? Can't the giant city-sized dinosaur take care of itself? He seems distracted, probaly by all the chatter on the radio channel. A fish-like drone catches Redshift off-guard, and takes a bite out of his right wing, sending him into a spin until he regains attitude control. Redshift speeds away from the drone, not even bothering to destroy the blasted thing. <> Redshift weaves in and out of the incoming defensive fire from the Quintesson command ship, and hopes some of the annoying fish-fashed drones get caught by the blasts instead of his fellow Decepticons. Redshift flies past a coulple of drones, and then makes a dive for the broad surface of the massive Quint' ship, pulling up just in time to avoid crushing his nosecone on the ship's hull.... Hoping to leads the dull-witted drones to crash themselves on the ship's thick armor. And so, just as Soundwave indicated to his allies over his broadband channel, he has powered up the Conquest, its lights flicking on, illuminating Trypticon's launch pad brilliantly. Its thrusters flare up as well with a dull orange glow. Cyclonus says, "All flight capable Decepticons, into formation around the Conquest, standard escort formation." A suicide gambit? Fine then... Jetfire's engines throttle higher, relying on superior speed, << Fighting the drones will gain us nothing... the control ships are the key. >> every defensive turret he has swiveling as he prepares for a dangerous gambit, lasers, hypersonic projectiles, and particle beams lance out in all directions as he boosts to overdrive, his scramjets glowing hot as he transmits << Peacekeeper, I'm going for the control ships. Make sure the miners are recovered ASAP. >> his trajectory arcs and swivels as his turrets pump out weapons fire at any near by drones, his heading inexorably changing towards the Quintession vessels. The brilliant detonation of the barracuda drone is a brief reward for Fusillade, given that 1.) there's hundreds more like it out there, and 2.), its disabled companion performs the ol' frozen turkey through airplane windshield routine. With a spasm of wings and tailslabs, the Lancer goes dark and silent, starting to drift into a slow nose-over-tail spin. Sixshot peeled back, headed in the opposite direction towards Trypticon again, engines burning to break through any drones who thought they'd keep him from rejoining his comrades. A few explosions marked his path, choosing speed however instead of merely mowing a path through them. There'd be enough of that in short order, using some of his lower settings to conserve energon till it was needed. Dreadwind stands for a while as he weighs up his options, firstly he could just collapse and let whatever happens happen, secondly he could just stand here and guard Trypticon like he's supposed to or thirdly he could join the shuttle crew. Surprisingly he doesn't choose the best option and instead heads for the powering up shuttle at least in there he can sit down in a seat. Cyclonus kicks in his engines as Soundwave begins to urge the massive bulk of the Conquest forward, cutting to the left as he to flies through the fire being directed at him from the Quintession command ship, before diving and cutting a sharp turn to place himself directly under the Conquest as he looses a pair of missiles toward two of the drones that are unluckly enough to cross directly in front of him before shooting out from underneeath the Conquest to use the explosion as momentary cover for himself. Peacekeeper does, in fact, get some time to survey the situation and listen. Sometimes, not being flight-capable (much less space-capable), movement-wise, has its advantages. <> she replies, optics and sensors flicking over the situation. Noticing that the mining drones seem to be relatively unbothered, she switches tactics and aims her handgun at the nearest freighter. <> she advises briskly, speaking mainly to the EDC forces present and possibly Fireflight, as she fires electrical bursts at the first Quint mining drone she spots. <> "Ow!" One of the drones' potshots singes Fireflight in an anhedral stabilizer as the Aerialbot loops around looking. <> The F-4's response sounds pretty calm for someone going nose over tailfins... but he manages to recover from the tumble before Metroplex can add him to the list of nearby hazards, and looks around for mining drones within range of this gravity well as new orders come over the comm. Shells explode around Redshift as the Command Ship's artillery is fired at him. More than a few droids are destroyed, but fodder is fodder. From the other Command Ship, Exterminatius watches the Decepticon's rapid approach. He watches without emotion as two out of the three drones after Redshift fail to pull up in time and explode against the heavy hull. The third sticks with Redshift, however. Unable to catch up to him, it fires its photon blasters. Exterminatius does not grow angry. It is not his way. But he does begin reorganizing his combat drones to bring them closer to the command ships, leaving the various mining drones slightly less protected. Jetfire clears the area around him on his trek towards the Command Ships. Which he chooses is up to him - one is closer, and one is further. With Redshift too close to target, the closer Quintesson ship shifts its targeting towards him, shooting up a wall of explosive shells for the Guardian to blow through. With Fusillade disabled, the little dot representing her on Exterminatius's tactical display screens blinks and then winks out, signaling her presumed destruction. Those around Trypticon, including the Decepticon shuttle Conquest and its escorts, have breathing room. While Redshift is able to avoid the heavy cannons, the Conquest isn't going to have nearly as much luck. Drones slash downwards towards the shuttle, crashing into the heavy armour and ripping off plates of metal with its buzzsaw teeth even as others are blown away by the piont defences. Ripping off the armour sheets one by one, the drones are making progress. Those inside will hear the sound of buzzsaws hacking through metal. Peacekeeper will find the mining drones easy marks. With many of them already full of energon, they explode in spectacular ways. But there are only so many within Metroplex's range. What Peacekeeper and Fireflight need is a lift. The pair of Starknights meanwhile snag one of the mining drones that didn't have energon inside, and is thus only mangled rather than annihilated. Cyclonus bursts out through the cloud of fire created by the explosion of the two drones, his angular wings cutting through as if a knife through warm yougurt, before making a beeline toward the Quintession command ship at full speed in an attempt to put the advtange of surprise and speed on his side. He lines up on the command section of the shuttle, moving from side to side to avoid the continual fire from the ship, before launching two missiles at the hull around the command deck to correct for any targeting errors that may occur. If it doesn't hit the command deck it'll hit nearby. Redshift may be speedy, but he's not perfect(despite rumours to the contrary), and the drones behind him are able to lock on to Redshift's tail-end and land a few shots. The blasts leave smoldering pits in his armor and wings, but do little to slow down the red spacecraft. < Redshift emits, to nobody in particular. He guns his thrusters, and evecutes a tight loop, coming up behind the offending drones. With a quick transformation to his robot mode, Redshift brings his second favorite firearm to bear: A somewhat bulky missile launcher, which sems designed for a larger mech than Redshift. Not as sleek as his gauss rifle, but the added damage capability will certainly come in handy! He fires off a few of the missiles at the hapless fish-head drones, smirking. Like shooting fish in a barrel. With his feet planted on the hull of the massive ship, he should be safe from the ship's defenses, but making him a prime target for the drones. He looks through the targetting system for his missile launcher, and begins exhausting his supply of missiles on the ugly attack drones. The sleek red spacecraft transforms into the winged warrior Redshift. Peacekeeper taps her chin thoughtfully as she realizes that there are a lot more mining drones out of range. Neither she nor Fireflight can get to them on their own, and everyone else is currently attacking the command ships. /Hnnn,/ she thinks as she turns her gaze back to Metroplex. Well, if the 'Cons can get a shuttle out here, so can she. <> She broadcasts to the Aerialbot as she runs back to the Cityformer, radioing ahead for a shuttle to be ready by the time she gets to where they're being kept. She still fires shots at any Quint drone--mining or combat--that is still in close-enough range. An irratic spiral, peppering bursts of laser and explosions as the orbital fighter jet rolled and dived, thrusters bright and orange against his chrome and green hull and the blackness of space. He banks in pursuit of a drone, on his way toward the Quintesson ship. His lasers slice coldly, answered by a murky, disinhibited smile. The drone in his sights explodes as he roars right through its detonation, releasing a bluish-white burst of lasers at three new targets without missing a beat. Debris and lasers pound his hull's sensors, dulled by his earlier energon spree. The Guardian Starfighter's engines burn bright, the blue halo almost swallowing his silhouette as the shields are thrown up in his path. His defensive turrets all turn forward, unleashing salvo after salvo to gain him the clear shot he needs as missile ports open and his main cannon lower into firing position. He's only going to get one really good shot at this, with the pounding he's starting to take, so he needs to make it count. Bursting momentarily into a clear area, contrails erupt from his wings and body as he unloads his full compliment of Proton Missiles is launched, homing on the largest source of heat on the target in front of him - the nearer of the two control ships. Once the missiles are away the Gauss Cannon mounted centerline of his body spins to life and empties a full clip of ammunition, accompanied on their path by burst after burst of particle beams. The entire salvo drains the guardian however as his maneuvering thrusters throw his trajectory clear of the craft, his systems drop into standby mode, his momentum threatening to carry him far out of the area as emergency energy collectors engage... for the moment, Jetfire is out of the dance. Soundwave is somewhat taken by surprise from the ferocious Quintesson counterattack. He taps several unlabeled buttons and reports to the (unusually quiet) Dreadwind, "Auto-pilot engaged. Shuttle will continue on pursuit with Quintesson ship, with random deviations to avoid return fire. Continue with your objective, Dreadwind." Standing up, Soundwave marches to the back hatch, and activates the local control panel to begin opening. As mechanisms whir and the hatch slowly opens, Soundwave presses his eject button and intones, "All Cassetticons, eject. Operation: Warfare." A stream of multicolored tapes flies out of his chest, landing in front of him and transforming into a wide range of modes, with Americon last, and, well, least. "It is a good day to die," Americon quips. "IN AMERICA!" "Silence, fool!" Soundwave retorts. "The Quintesson drones must be repelled at all costs. Remove them from the outer hull plating. Turtler, remain here and use your miniguns to prevent the drones from entering while the hatch is open." The sixchanger kept a flanking position, hanging back just enough to keep within pace of the larger Decepticon shuttle nearby. Sixshot fired at at near random it would seem, his path weaving and varying in plane, except he narrowly avoided direct collisions and seemed to get a fair hit rate if the measure of silent explosions were a guage. He wouldn't linger overly long, the others on the shuttle would have to step up to defend the craft from the numerous drones now within range. <> It was the only warning he'd give that it'd be up to Dreadwind and company to deal with the space-faring sharkicon-like drones that were attempting to make short work off the hull. He'd pick of atleast a couple before he swept up and over the shuttle, barrel-rolling a couple shots off at one or two clinging drones before darting foward. Soundwave replies, <> Cyclonus rises up over the bulk of the nearest Quintession command ship, still moving at a rapid clip to make his way past the barrage of weapons fire, before he's suddenly past the warship. He changes the thrust of his engines to turn himself to the right, ending up on his side, before turning himself in a sharp circle which brings him on a direct line to the engines of the command ship he recently flew over. As he nears the ship his lasers begin to fire to rake across the engine housings of the Quintession ship. The lead Command Ship, closer to the incoming Transformer forces comes under heavy fire. A pair of missiles slam into the well protected command centre, tearing through the shields. There's two muffled explosions armour plating is blown off. The command centre itself is still functional, but someone could break through if they so desired. Laser fire on the engine scores direct hits, though the armour seems capable of withstanding the punishment for a while. With Redshift's feet planted firmly on the outer hull, he gets to feel every vibration as weapons fire hits the vessel. The combat drones don't seem to mind smashing themselves into the hull if it means getting to Redshift. With buzzsaw teeth revving, they silently snarl and charge. Several are destroyed by missile fire, but staying here is not viable. Swarming him, they tear at the Decepticon's arms and legs, trying to rend him limb from limb. Quickswitch's reign of terror comes to an end. Not because he's been defeated, but because he's run out of targets in this region of space. Drones are pulling back to protect the lead Command Ship, leaving the Sixchanger temporarily without anyone to shoot. Said Command ship then bears the brunt of everything Jetfire has to offer. Missiles slam into side of one of the larger spirals on the vessel, causing an immediate hull breach. Sharkticons are flung out into the void of space due to decompression. Redshift might be knocked clear off by the shaking if he isn't careful. The breach is made worse by gauss cannon fire tearing at the ship's innards. There's now a big enough hole in the Quintesson Command ship for a mech to fly through if they wanted. The Conquest's fortunes go from bad to worse as combat drones tear through the upper hull even while Quintesson artillery slams into the vessel, knocking it badly off course and shaking up everyone inside. Several of the combat drones are knocked off by the shaking, and others are picked off by Sixshot before the sixchanger abandons Soundwave to his fate. Nobody likes Soundwave anyways. Meanwhile, a sizable number of mining drones have finished their work. Their cargo holds full of energon, some begin returning to both mother ships. Commander Soundwave says, "The Conquest has sustained too much damage! I must withdraw!" With a leap canards and wings begin to fold out and rotate into place. Arms retract and legs change into powerful engines. Out of what seems a flurry of motion streaks a sleek and powerful jet fighter. Redshift struggles to get away from the gnashing teeth and vicious faces of the fish-like drones. Hand-to-hand combat just isn't his thing, especially when it's hand-to-TEETH combat! Redshift bats one away with his rocket launcher, and unleashes a full clip RATTA-TAT-TAT-TAT of chaingun ammo from his machine gun, and laser fire from hids optics, at the closest of the drones, keeping them at bay log enough for him to break free. A few droplets of Energon spill out into the zero-gravity enviroment, trailing behind Redshift as he high-tails it out of there. Redshift decides that staying on one spot too long is asking for trouble, so he starts manuevering around the circumferance of the large ship... Small jets around his body let him move in the dead vacuum of space like a fish through water, which he uses to his advantage to skim along, keeping tight to the surface of the massive ship to avoid defensive artillery fire. Bootjets flaring, Redshift zips along at speeds in excess of a hundred miles an hour, feinting and dodging to keep away from any pesky drones that head his way. He veers around, looking for a weak point in the massive ship's hull, somewhere he could get inside and start causing REAL trouble. Speeding towards the command area of the ship, Redshift can see that some missile from th Unicron-spawned Cyclonus have broken through the tough outer defenses. Redshift adds one of his own, less powerful missiles to the mix, and dives into the resulting hole, weapons ready. Peacekeeper jumps into the nearest shuttle and slams the door closed. No time to wait on Fireflight--he'll have to tag along outside if he wants to leave the safety of Metroplex. "Get in the air!" She barks at the pilot, taking a seat at the weapons systems and warming up the various turrets and missile bays. "Yes, ma'am!" The pilot replies as the shuttle slowly lifts up and away from Metroplex, quickly gaining speed as it flies out of the Cityformer's range of fire. The Autobot CMO carefully watches the screen, letting the shuttle's targeting computer deal with the majority of calculations as she adds her own sensors to chain one attack pattern to another to take out the most drones with the least amount of firepower. "Not happening," she mutters softly as she opens fire on the mining drones already making their way back to the control ships, strafing towards others on the sensors that haven't quite left their targets just yet. Cyclonus flies past the engine housings of the Quintession command ship before continuing on past it, turning himself to the right by changing the thrust vector of his engines, before keeping to the rear of the ship as he turns himself around to make another approach on the engines of the command ship. This time, however, he pulls out all the stops as all his internal weapons capacitors start to charge up before unleashing a devastating blast of energy toward the centerpost engine section of the command ship. Soundwave is flung to his knees as the Conquest is rocked by a massive blast that blasts a hole wide open into space, and showers him with shrapnel. "Urgh!" Soundwave grunts, but he doesn't take time out to tend to his injuries. Thinking quickly, he rips a passenger out of its housing, and shoves it into the hull breach, hammering it into place with his bare fists. He glances over at his tapes--seems like they're just getting up from that last hit. "Go!" he commands, and out the open hatch they go, crawling out and sticking carefully to the hull, since none of them are space-capable. Turtler dutifully remains behind and hoses down any of the drones that try to get inside the open hatch with a hail of lead. Once outside, the Cassetticons are beset by the drones, but the Cassetticons are ferocious little bastards. Glitter looks like the spitting image of a barbarian robot fairy as she smashes drone after drone with her wand, Flinga crushes a few more with his fists, and... Americon kinda sorta just shoots in their general direction. The Conquest hasn't been directed to turn around, yet, but it does fire off a nice spread of cap-busting torpedoes at the damaged Quintesson vessel. From the dark expanse a small signature appears on the scopes. The target is hard to pick up visually since it is completely covered in black and meshes almost perfectly between the mirky blackness between stars. Its short range gravity drives kick in and the seeker heads towards the command ship. In his way are hordes upon hordes of drones. He transmits, "Reinforcements have arrived comrades....." with that the seeker begins a spiraling approach firing relentlessly with his 20 mm cannon and disruptors. Once he has softened up a section of the retreating drones, Bandit's fuselage begins to glow. He accelerates and then dives into the midst of the fray and once inside unleashes his maelstrom on the hordes swathing a path towards his goal. Exterminatius watches the plight of the other command ship. He turns towards another monitor. This one shows the duty roster of that ship. He quickly scans the list of Quintesson names. Several rivals to his power and rank in Astracius's new order. Exterminatius turns back to the tactical display monitors, having made an incredibly easy decision. Having tasted energon, the drones after Redshift gnash their buzzsaw teeth and zip after him with renewed vigour. Destroyed bits of the fish-like drones are left in the Decepticon's wake, floating uselessly. Blowing through into the hull breach just as a forcefield is raised to keep the remaining atmosphere inside the ship, the space drones angrily back off, not programmed for fighting inside a vessel. Redshift finds himself the half-destroyed remains of some form of Quintesson computer lab. Several dead Quints are slumped over consoles. The monitors flicker with text. Two Sharkticons, hardier than their masters, transform into shark mode and rush the Decepticon. The second Transformer shuttle in the air, this one an Autobot, has better luck than the Conquest. The closest command ship is too damaged to put up an adequate fight anymore, and the further one is contentedly receiving the spoils of their ill gotten gains as shark-like energon miner droids return home. The Autobot shuttle rumbles towards the damaged Quintesson command vessel. Exterminatius watches as Cyclonus sears off the rear engines on the other spiral vessel, causing the ship to drift. Missiles from the Conquest make things worse. A light flickers from his command post, signaling a desperate request for communication from the Commander of the other vessel. Exterminatius's head rotate back to his peaceful diplomatic side, and he calmly ignores the call for help, concentrating on taking in all the mining drones he can. The Conquest meanwhile is jury-rigged back to semi-operational status. The Cassetticons outside begin annihilating the combat drones assaulting the ship. Several of the fish-like creatures resort to photon blaster fire, trying to blow the Cassetticons off the ship. With Bandit's arrival, the drones have pulled back from other regions in the solar system, concentrating on protecting the two command ships. Those assigned to the first, damaged vessel are being slaughtered. Those assigned to the other are unharmed. Redshift says, "I hate Sharkticons..." Sub-Orbital Fighter Jet might think they were fleeing /him/, and for a moment, his lasers going off into the dotted darkness of space as the combat drones return to protect their motherships. Quickswitch's roaring engines are choked by the silence of space as he zeros in now through the wide path blazed by the Air Guardian. He veers, irratic calculations made in the span of nanoseconds, his entire hull crackling madly, the surge collecting at his wing-cannons which open fire in a heated, focused beam into the fresh wound created by Cyclonus (mostly because I forget where Jetfire was aiming, yay tired). The blurry overdrive to his systems was heady, exhilerating, and served to unlock inhibited processes and databanks, as it had now, knocked something proceedural, loose. Quickswitch sustains the photon beam, solid as he speeds toward the command ship itself. To ram it...? Quickswitch says, "WRECK AND FRAGGING RULE!! -bzzzzt-" Whirligig says, "Readings are still good in here... do I even /want/ to know what's going on out there?" Cyclonus raises his nose up to fly over the top of the now disabled and drifting command ship as he turns himself toward the rows of the remaining undamaged command ship as he changes course to fly toward the underside of the Command Ship before firing off two missiles in an attempt to damage the entrance point used by the mining drones. Once inside the Quintesson command ship, Redshift has little time to relax. Now free from the toroenting buzzsaw-like teeth of the drones outside, he finds himself face-to-face with a pair of more traditonal(but no less threatening) Sharkticons. Redshift quickly leaps behind a bank of computers, and switches his heavy-duty rocket launcher for the easier to handle gauss rifle. He rolls out from behind his cover, ending in a low crouch. He fires off several of the supersonic slugs towards the ugly pair of Sharkticons, trying to hit them in the optics, or at least knock out a few of thier teeth. Sub-Orbital Fighter Jet 's form dissapears in a crackling blurr of transformation and a muffled boom as he impacts and... dissapears. Quickswitch rapidly transforms into a hulking drill tank. Tank in spaaaaaace....! Soundwave rushes to the Conquest's pilot's seat, deactivating auto-pilot and beginning to steer the damaged shuttle away from the battle. He brings up a sub-window on the main viewscreen, and watches the progress of the torpedo spread he launched earlier. Should be closing in on the Quintesson ship soon, now. All the same, he can't risk the shuttle--and himself--to those powerful capital ship guns any longer. Outside, Glitter shrieks and clings tightly to the superstructure of the Conquest as photon beams streak across her. Pinned down by their fire, she doesn't move an inch. Then suddenly... "I'll save you!" Americon yells as he jumps right into their fire. "It is the AMERICAN way! Urgh, ack, ow!" He grimaces as the drones blast holes in his chest and blow off one of his arms. "This is VERY PAINFUL... in AMERICA!" The other tapes return fire as well. Jars gets blasted off the ship and tumbles away, emitting a gargling noise as he quickly fades into the inky blackness. But Flinga does a bit better, tossing a grenade into the surviving drones. Happy Kill, the robot penguin, blasts a few more drones with his eyebeams as he tapdances like crazy. Peacekeeper waits for the screen to clear as a good number of drones seem to be wiped out. However, it doesn't seem to be all of them, and the shuttle seems to be going towards the command ship that's all-but-destroyed by now. With an annoyed huff, she barks some directions at the pilot to redirect away from the dying Quintesson command ship and focus on the rest of the mining drones. As the shuttle slowly turns more towards the undamaged command ship, she quickly runs a new recalculation and strafes the remaining drones, and sends a few missiles in the direction of Exterminatius' ship for good measure. Quickswitch still sounds very overenergized, and would, likely, for some time, "Oh, everything's fine," he sounds content, bored, almost like this was a walk in a park... then he laughs, the sound disconnected from his earlier statement and sounding like irratic picket fence spikes aligned unevenly. Sounds like? Yes. That's how drunk he is. Quickswitch says, "..We've got it. Dumbaft Guardian wasted his ammo--but hish sacrifice will not be in vain. Y'know I think he could use some help." Quickswitch says, "So help him!" Quickswitch says, "*ammo=energon geez" Drill Tank whrrrr-bzzzzt- The inevitable is rapidly approaching the initial command ship, and Quickswitch's brazen assault is the coup de grace. The starfighter's photon beams slices through the heavy outer plating, weakening it just seconds before transforming and crashing through it. The sixchanger will feel repeated impacts to his drills, each one like someone's using a jackhammer on him. Brief images of smashing through several decks, seeing quick glimpses of the interior of the ship, Sharkticons, and Quintessons. Finally the impacts stop, and the drill tank is out on the other side of the command ship, floating in space. Debris floats behind him. He's going to turn around and go back in if he wants entry. Several decks below, Redshift feels the floors and ceilings groan in protest of the structural damage being done elsewhere in the ship. The shaking will knock him clear off his feet. Luckily, it does the same for the two Sharkticons as well. The first had lunged for him, taking a bite out of the computer banks by accident instead. Spitting it out, it's abruptly smashed against the ceiling from the shipquake and shatters. The second takes three slugs to the face and eyes, killing the Sharkticon. Redshift is now in the computer lab all alone. Strange images flicker on the monitors. Combat drones swarm the Conquest even as it approaches the command ships. One managed to blast glitter, but is saved by Americon's heroics. They close in on the plucky Cassetticons for the kill- - and half of them abruptly seize up, floating in whatever direction they were heading before. All across the region, approximately half of the combat drones begin to fail. One Quintesson Command Ship is unable to keep transmitting orders to the drones and are rendeed useless. Exterminatius has not bothered taking control of them. Instead he takes control of any miner drones that were being handled by the other vessel, directing them now back to his own ship. Unfortunately for him, many of these don't end up making it as Peacekeeper directs the Autobot shuttle to focus fire on them. The Quintesson watches the monitors, seeing that the shuttle has now shifted to focus on /his/ command ship. Exterminatius rotates back to his termination face even as missiles impact with his vessel. Issuing commands, his defence drones swarm Peacekeeper's ship. Photon cannons slam into the Autobot shuttle even as artillery begins to hammer it. Dredge swims around in the blackness of space Crash! Boom! Redshift says, "So I'm in a lab with some crazy stuff on the screens. Any idea what I'm supposed to do?" Dredge says, "Just keep pushing buttons until something happens. That's what I'd do.." Commander Soundwave says, "That ship may explode at any moment Redshift. Evacuate at once." Bandit says, "Operative Bandit reporting in comrades....I have enough bombs to distract Neocron at the ready.....what are my standing orders...approaching command vessel now." Dredge says, "What Scrapper said. Run in a straight line and you'll hit the hull..probably" Redshift says, "That's very comforting." The ebony seeker continues to harass and lay the smack down on drone after drone. To a radar screen it would look like a superhighway was being created through space, and only after some time do the edges begin to fold in on itself as he presses through. When Bandit finally is able to break free of the swarming and now somewhat diluted masses he accelerates towards the gaping hole in the command ship. With a quick opening of his weapons bay doors, two large projectiles sail towards the command ship's engine section, getting ready to lay a quite powerful boom on it. He transmits a message over the comms. Dredge engages his magnaboots and walks around outside Trypticon Dredge also examines the blueprints for a typical Quint ship as well Commander Soundwave says, "Attack the other command vessel, Bandit. Redshift... change of orders. If you are able to extract a data core from the laboratory computer, I may recommend to Shockwave that he promote you..." Redshift says, "On it, Soundwave." Dredge says, "Just make sure you turn off the security for the computers so when you remove it, it doesn't vaporize the ship and you with it." Redshift says, "you're not helping!" Dredge says, "It'd be bad if we lost those data core's for no good reason." Dredge says, "I bet you didn't even think to check for security and safety measures bucko." Dredge holds the blueprints for the quint ship up to some starlight Cyclonus flies under the second Quintession command ship before he quickly transforms to aim himself as the access port that the mining drones would be using as he points his head toward the weak point in the hull before he transforms again and flies straight up, releasing a barrage of missiles ahead of him, hoping to use his speed, size, and weapons to blaze a path all the way through the hull. The Autobot pilot is quick to take evasive maneuvers the instant the drones swarm towards the shuttle, but unfortunately it seems like the shuttle is not the most maneuverable of crafts--as proven when artillery and photon blasts strike the hull. Peacekeeper curses sharply as she straps into the chair at the weapon-control terminal and focuses the bulk of the shuttle's weaponry on the attacking drones. The shuttle quickly falls back and away, firing energy blasts and missile salvos at the drones and command ship alike with no sign of differentiating between the two. Both are Quint-alligned, and that's enough as far as she's concerned. Redshift is shaken by the rumbling of the ship's deck, and stumbles to the floor, adding more dents to his battered armor. Now, with the Sharkticons dealth with,(he'll tell everyone he killed at least a dozen of them, nobody will know the difference), Redshift takes a quick moment to look around the half-destroyed lab. "A data core, huh?" Redshift muses. He's probaly seen at least a few data cores in his time, although who knows what a Quintesson one looks like? Listening to Dredge on the radio is making his head hurt. Redshift quickly starts opening panels on the computer systems around him, and locates the most important-looking piece of the system he can find. Lots of cable and blinky LEDs and stuff. He flicks out his wrist-mounted knives and quickly cuts through the wires leading to the object, before yanking it free. He stashes it into his cockpit window and transforms, and with a huge flare of heat from his thrusters filling the lab behind him, he takes off for the (relative)safety of outer space. The rythym pounding against his drill, sending vibration shocks through his thick hull are counterpoint to the chaotic whirlwind of his irratic processes, thoughts, emotions--dulled somewhat, and others, brutally enhanced. Floating in the pitch black of space, his armored hull catching a glimpse of the shuttles on an off-center skew, Quickswitch transforms in another burst of electricity surrounding his blurring form back into his fighter jet form. His new primary target--dancing between three blips--<> Accelerated, Quickswitch transforms into a sub-orbital jet. Bandit peels off his attack vector and does as he is commanded, redirecting his efforts towards the second command ship. He uses his agility to skim around the severely damages ships extremities and catapaults himself towards the other. His sensors pick up Cyclonus' approach vector and he triangulates a position and vector to best provide him with a force multiplier in regards to his efforts. With a blaze of energy his speed accelerates as he arcs for just the right set of waypoints that will best compliment the afore mentioned efforts. Some preliminary cannon fire begins to streak towards command ship number two, but the technique is merely chaff and flares to muddle the ships defenses. In the midst of his curtain of lead, he opens his weapons bad doors again and sends two large missles streaking in concert just behind those of Cyclonus. They are set to detonate at just the appropriate astrosecond to amplify his path of destruction. Soundwave has now pointed the Conquest away from the Quintesson ship, and set a new course for Trypticon. He's not confident that the ship will hold up to another salvo like the one it recently endured. Setting scanners to active, he hopes to find any Cassetticons that might've been knocked off and are currently drifting through space. On the exterior, the Cassetticons cheer happily as the drones are suddenly deactivated. "I dare say we overwhelmed them with our furious assault!" Flinga ventures. It's good enough for them. And poor Americon's body, now just a head and chunk of torso, mutters, "*hack* Good work, guys! General Custer would be proud to call you fellow Americans!" Dredge says, "So how are you ladycons doing out there?" The second Command Ship, no longer undamaged, receives a pair of missiles from Cyclonus. One of the hangars the mining droids are returning to half collapses, rendering it unusable. Droids begin rerouting themselves to other locations along the ship, though the Quintessons have to be careful not to give the Decepticon second in command an easy opening. Another flurry of missiles from Cyclonus cut into the hull even as the fishy combat drones streak towards him. They latch onto the Decepticon with their razor sharp teeth, trying to drag him back away from the Command Ship while tearing him to pieces. The Autobot shuttle defends itself from the drones as best it can, with energy blasts and missiles try to ward them off. Several of the droids slam into the hull and begin tearing at its with their teeth gnashing, eager to crack open a second Transformer shuttle for the evening. Bandit meanwhile adds injury to more injury. A pair of projectiles slam into what's left of the first Command Ship's engines, searing them off. The Command Vessel's mobility is killed, and it hasn't a chance of being able to flee the battle. Smaller explosions from within wrack the ship, traveling slowly but steadily along the ship's spine, drawing closer to Redshift's location. Though silent looking in from outer space, inside the explosions are tremendously loud as the chain reaction slowly spreads across the ship. As Redshift snags what he hopes is a data core, the monitors are still flickering. Wire-frame of Abominus, Superion, Devastator, Computron, Bruticus, and Menasor can be seen, along with the freakish Frankenstein monster Combiners the Quintessons created just last month can be briefly seen. They cut out as Redshift snags the core and flees the vessel seconds before the computer lab explodes. Exterminatius sees that he has reclaimed what mining drones he can. He rotates, shifting to his disgusting blank featureless face. What has been done here has been done, and there isn't anything left to do but end it. As the Autobot shuttle fires at it, Bandit closes in, and Cyclonus tries to force his way in, his tentacles flicker outwards, and the Quint vessel begins drawing back. He watches with cold amusement as the sister ship is slowly lit up, compartment by compartment, before finally exploding entirely. FTL drives warming up even as several mining drones stupidly make last ditch efforts to dock, the Quintesson ship vanishes with a flash of light, leaving behind droids, debris, and destruction. The remaining drones begin to drift helplessly, and space is that much quieter here again. Dredge stores the antique blueprint away and puts his hands on his hips, admiring the starlight Cyclonus stars to shake himself from side to side as the combat drones latch onto him, accelerating his engines to full power as he raises himself higher up to scrape as many of the drones off his hull as he can manage before clearing the hull he's flying underneath. The nose of the hideous sub-orbital fighter aligns itself with the second Quintesson shuttle... which then vanishes to the sound of an irratic vocalizer emitting Cybertronian curses. Quickswitch says, "One ship, destroyed, the other warped out. Redshift also returned to Trypticon with something. I don't know what it was. -zzzkkt- Permission to engage remaining... targets... Where the frag is Impactor?" Chief Medical Officer Peacekeeper says, "Negative, Quickswitch. All drones have been deactivated with one ship destroyed and the other gone. Besides, I don't think you're in much of a condition to continue fighting at this point." Quickswitch says, "I'm in perfect fighting shape. I disagree." Two Decepticons, one very clearly the Unicronian, Cyclonus, and the other a seeker he doesn't recognize, remain as 'blips' nearest him. Debris floats behind the jet-formed Autobot Sixchanger. A moment of internal irratic trading of thoughts, and a decision is made as Quickswitch blasts away without another word, becoming a small particle in space.